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Sunday, July 26, 2015

I managed to get them pieced into the blocks, sashings and fill triangles created and sewn.

I debated whether the large floral ivory border or the lavender scattered floral should be on the outside. I decided on the scattered floral, since we all know the edges of quilts tend to get dirty first. This is a quilt to be used, not merely admired.

It finished at 87 x 87 inches, so I'm not sure where I'd find a place large enough to capture the whole thing. I'll consider that after it's quilted.

I've loved this block since I first saw it in the early 1980s. Took me long enough, huh?!

I'm not sure I can quilt this before school starts the first week of August. Also, just the top is heavy enough that it needs to be longarm quilted instead of quilted on one of my treadles. It certainly has a lot of wonderful spaces for quilting. I'm having a great time planning the quilting. It's the first quilt I've made for myself in over ten years, and I hope to enjoy it for several decades!

I;m linking to Connie's Linky Tuesday as well as to Esther's Blog and her WIPs on Wednesdays. Both links are in the column to the right.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Still working on the quilt top from Eleanor Burns' Zoey line for Benartex that began with strips and has now seen the addition of white strips for sashing. I'd love to get the borders on before the end of the day. We'll see.

Creating some pieced triangles.....

That square to the right is a stack of post-it notes that I'm using for a seam guide.

Oops....four patches turned the wrong way!

Time to do some R&R (ripping and resewing)....

At least I have a wonderful seam ripper!

Okay, now turned in the right direction.

The next challenge is that I need some really big setting triangles--bigger than the Fons & Porter ruler for setting triangles.

A little sloppiness here could ruin the entire quilt top--and I'm running out of the white fabric.

I decided to use these pieced triangles as a pattern for the solid triangles.

I just have to be careful and check measurements correctly. I guess I could have used a huge sheet of freezer paper, but I didn't.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

More photos of what is happening with the Wisteria strips from Eleanor Burns' Zoey line for Benartex Fabrics.

I needed eight of these "split four patches."

Of course, they need this seam allowance, so I couldn't just cut four-patches in two.

I also got to trim a few "baby triangles."

I also needed to piece four-patches to the ends of some strips.

Since this roll of fabrics was purchased last January, I searched the internet for an additional Zoey print. I've purchased two prints from the line to use in borders, and they've been here for a while. Yardage of these prints are fast disappearing from on-line shops that I've had experience with. So, I decided to go with pure white, telling myself that the quilting will show up nicely.

Next I needed half square triangles that would finish with two inch and four inch sides. I keep moving my sewing stuff around and have no idea where my 2-decades-old triangle rulers are!

Then I remember that even longer ago I had purchased a couple of boxes with a wide variety of templates. These may have been from Quilting from the Heartland, but I no longer have the original box.

However, the set contained both needed sizes of triangle templates, so I did some more cutting and piecing.

Okay, we are back to work, determined that the next time I arrange things, they will not be in four different rooms!

This is going to be a really beautiful quilt, but I'm starting to feel more than a little anxiety that our school will begin so soon, and I want this top ready for quilting at least! (August 4th is such an early start date--and is happening because of the pressures of No Child Left Behind, Common Core Curriculum Standards, and Standardized Testing.)

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A very joyous quilt that brought me a lot of joy as I rushed to quilt it. I think I may be getting brave enough to quilt a quilt for my friend Lynn, a quilt that has been hanging around for a long time and that she may think she'll never see quilted!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

I almost forgot to share this Route 66 quilt. Ruth pieced it for our prayer quilt ministry.

When I asked her if it was hard to cut into her Route 66 fabric, she said this is not the first quilt she has made from that yardage.

I grew up about 15 miles from Route 66 to the east and about 20 miles from Route 66 to the south, since I grew up on a farm outside El Paso, Illinois. When I moved to New Mexico, I lived about four blocks from Route 66 in Gallup on the western edge of New Mexico. Now that I live in central New Mexico, I'm maybe a mile from Route 66--although here we all refer to it as Route 66 and state refers to it as Route 333.

I decided to do an outer border of swirling feathers. Sometimes I got the twist right, sometimes I didn't! But the coppery thread and the deep blue do seem synonymous with Route 66 in my brain!

I put a little raindrop in the swirlies in the green border. However, I take no credit or blame for the amount of rain that has fallen on Route 66 this summer!

Ruth is putting the binding on it so it will be ready for our next prayer quilt dedication.

Monday, July 13, 2015

I neglected to post photos of this happy quilt full of circles. I think it was pieced by Dawn for our Victory Prayer Quilt Ministry.

This is another of the products from our last prayer quilt piecing workshop.

The photos would have been a lot better if I could have seen them in the camera viewer, but my angle didn't cooperate with the angle of the quilts. So I just wanted to be sure that I had a photo for my records.

One of the things I've always loved about quilts was how a change of fabrics could create so many pleasant variations.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

From time to time, some of us learn that our quilt art is being stolen.
Please refer to the linked Blogpost of Jackie Morris for information so you can follow up on what may have been stolen from you.
Wallpart, the company stealing images and selling posters of them is located in Russia. A blogging friend recently posted about how many blog hits she was getting from Russia, and I pointed out that I always worry when that happens since there truly are not that many readers of quilt blogs there. Please read Jackie's post and make an effort to protect yourself. Searching Wallpart's site is difficult; when I tried to do so, they reported 875 quilt images, posted only a few on each page, and would not let me search beyond page 3. They are marketing many poor quality images; they do not honor copyright.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

This is what has happened with some more of the strips from Zoey, an Eleonor Burns line for Benartex:

A light violet strip was paired with a medium violet strip and pinned every few inches. Without pins these strips would not come out even because the feed dogs would move the bottom fabric through the machine faster than the top fabric. I'm treadling a Necchi BU Supernova manufactured in Italy some time between 1950 and 1952. The little stack of post it notes are to help maintain a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance. I'm using the zigzag plate but sewing a straight line with the needle in the middle position. The default position for these old Necchis is to the left.

The fabrics were pressed as they came from the machine to set them and then opened so that the seam allowance is pressed toward the medium violet fabric.

Here's what the back side looked like.

The next step was to layer two pieced strips together with the medium and pale strips opposing each other so the seams would "lock" while they were being cut into 2-1/2 inch strips.

When ready to sew, check to see that the seam allowances are aligned,

and then chain feed them through the machine. It was at this point that I couldn't help but note how quiet the treadle is and what a peaceful task this is.

After stitching all the units, it's time to clip the threads between them and stack them for pressing.

I'm sure lots of people are happy with finger pressing, but I want them really flat so I use my little iron with just a bit of steam.

Then they were pressed open.

And here is the little pile of softly whispering four patches with their pretty little intersections in the center.

Does anyone care to guess what comes next?

I apologize for the shadows in these photos, but I was sewing after dark.

We're up to three inches of rain for the month. Doppler radar reported that it was raining here much of the afternoon, but it wasn't. I'm wondering if it just got confused by the altitude. We could get more rain tonight and tomorrow, but there is still a lot of recovery to be done from yesterday's hail and rain. There is standing water in almost every ditch, and there are lots and lots of huge puddles.
I've decided not to post photos of my badly damaged fuchsia colored geraniums. I may be able to salvage enough to get them to grow back. If they had been petunias, they would have been a total loss.

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